Antenna array systems, and in particular processed or phased array antenna systems, are known in the art. FIG. 1 (Prior art) presents a simplified block diagram of a typical receive antenna array 100 having a plurality of receiving antenna elements 110. FIG. 2 presents an additional example of a typical simplified block diagram of the internal processing chain within the antenna array 100. In addition to the antenna array elements, there is optionally down-converter 210 in order to convert the received RF (radio frequency) analog signals to IF (intermediate frequency) analog signals or base-band analog signals. There may be optionally one down-converter (that converts all RF signals from all elements together) or a set of down-converters (i.e. one per each element) as presented in FIG. 2. Following the down-converter, the analog signals are converted to digital signals by analog-to-digital converters (ADC) 220. Usually there is ADC per antenna element. Thereafter, the digital signals are processed by the digital array processor 230 implementing various array processing techniques 240. Example of such array processing techniques are Digital Beam Forming (DBF), beam steering, MVDR, etc. Usually, as the number of antenna array elements increases, the complexity and implementation difficulty also increases, because the number of ADCs increases. The ADC is one of the main components that consume power in the receiving chain, and as the number of ADC grows, the power consumption grows (linearly, in accordance with the number of antenna elements).
Therefore there is a need in the art for new techniques with less complex power/volume/weight efficient receiving and processing (phased) array antenna systems implementing less than antenna element analog-to-digital converters (preferably even a single ADC, if feasible).
Multiplexing techniques for multiplexing channel in communication systems are known in the art. For example, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) are multiplexing techniques known in the art.